As a male gamer, thank you for not oversexualizing every female NPC

[Kosmos992k]

Yes, you can throw a handful of really old examples of what would serve as precursors to modern 'moe', but 'moe' as we know it today didn't become as crazy-ubiquitous in Japan until the mid-90s/early 00's. I'm talking hundreds and hundreds of series designed specifically to pander towards the otaku demographic with girls styled in that ever-so-recognizable moe fashion. The anime industry in particular exploded with this stuff, and to this day you see it EVERYWHERE. There was a definite and recognizable shift towards this style of design. That's what I mean when I say 'the moe craze'.

The mid 90's were literally two decades ago, that is not recent. The anime industry has paralleled the game industry, I'm not sure that moe is the driver here. You're also deliberately ignoring the cultural phenomenon of 'cute' that pervades a lot of pop culture in Japan. You talk of moe being something that is designed to pander to Otaku, clearly labelling it as something you see as negative. I disagree with you. First of all, Otaku is not a term limited to anime fanatics who like cute characters that they want to protect. I do think that you are taking a purely negative view of something that is neither negative, nor exclusive to a specific group of Otaku. The very same cute and vulnerable characters can be appealing to both genders. The fact that a vocal minority find some form of unwholesom pleasure with moe characters in ther H-games, should and does not condemn moe or cuteness to be nothing but fantasy fodder to a small number of fans with a hole in their life that these things fill. I am certain that we will need to agree to disagree though.

they're projecting their sexism onto you

Indeed, and yet at the same time, they believe that they are absolutely not being sexist.

With that, I will apologize for the off topic posts, agree that SE do a good job keeping their NPCs appropriately dressed, and diagree with any who have a problem with the tiny number of somewhat sexy clothing options. And so I will exit the topic rather than drag it further off topic.